When you choose the SETSYS PROFILEBACKUP command, DFSMShsm creates backup profiles of RACF® discrete data set profiles when the corresponding data sets are backed up. These backup profiles have the same data set name as the backup version. Therefore, all of the backup profiles have the same high-level qualifier for their data set names—the DFSMShsm backup prefix. Your installation can define the prefix or you can use the DFSMShsm default of HSM.

When RACF stores a data set profile in its data set, the location of the profile in the data set is based on the data set name. If you do not take any action to avoid storing the backup profiles in the same general location in the RACF data set, the overall system performance can be degraded. Whether you should take action or not depends on how many RACF-protected discrete data sets DFSMShsm backs up and what release of RACF you have installed on your system.